Holiday traditions/rituals

Hay fellow RJers, I know that alot in the world think all of us godless heathens but I would like to hear how you celebrate your holidays.I just like to hear how others do things shows me how different and the same we all are.Be safe,happy,and free

In Sweden we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve not on Christmas Day and my family's tradition is: get together at 2.30 pm, drink mulled wine (glögg) with almonds and raisins. At 3 pm watch a traditional TV collection of Disney clips (really, *everyone* does this, it's been going on for the past 50 years), have Christmas dinner: smorgasboard with ham, meatballs, sausages, various pickled herrings, Jansson's temptation, smoked salmon, egg halves, saurkraut, potatoes, liver paté, beet salad and various other things. At around 7 pm Tomten (Santa) arrives with a bag of presents whenever there are age-appropriate children, otherwise we just hand out gifts from under the tree.

Things will be different this year because my grandmother died recently so no one is really up for having the traditional Christmas celebrations, perhaps next year.

My oldest sister and her husband host since she has the biggest place, so my mom and I drive up there.

Here are a couple of ours:

-Can open 1 present on Christmas eve: usually ends up being PJs-PJs to be worn throughout Christmas day, even if we have to run to the store-food staples: my mom's candied yams, grandma's recipe for monkey bread and her special dessert, and my brother-in-law's cheese grits.-my oldest sister and I team up to make the middle sister cry (from laughing so hard)....never not had it happen

well typically we open Christmas presents here at the house on Christmas day (family) and wake up like at 6 latest 7 in the morning even if we fell asleep at 4 or 5. Play video games if we get any for like 2 hours or so not to mention enjoy all the gifts we got. Then afterwards we head over to my aunt's house where she has cooked Turkey, Ham, and other such stuff until we're full. Meanwhile we pass out presents to our aunts, uncles, cousins, and such and open the presents they gave us. Head back home and that's it.Oh and from Christmas eve til Christmas day we leave the TV on "A Christmas Story" watching most of it each time it comes on which my mom hates, but the rest of us love. The one part she likes is when the little kid gets his tongue stuck on a pole after he's triple fog dared to do so. LOL

Well, I still live with my parents. Usually, we'd split the house with all the older people downstairs(they would usually be gambling), and the younger ones (including myself, my cousins, and close family friends) would stay upstairs and play video games. When we get tired of that, we'd take out some board games, and try to stay up as late as we can. It's all innocent, kiddie fun (Man, I feel so young..) Sometime after midnight, we'd open all the xmas presents. The party would go on till morning.

There would be tons of food. Most of it is Filipino food, and most of them are meat dishes. I don't know how this is going to work this year because I just became a vegetarian a few months ago.

My grandparents were immigrants from Italy, and my family still follows the traditional Southern Italian custom of a big Christmas Eve dinner of seven fishes, except that's a lot of fish and usually we are one or two fishes shy of seven. There will be strong coffee and sweets we see just at this time of year that my mom has been preparing for weeks now, and then we'll all go to Midnight Mass and stay up way too late (mostly laughing and talking about the people we saw at church) while everyone sneakily adds presents to the stockings hanging on the mantle.

1) Adults get to sit around the big table with the nice centerpiece. Kids have to sit at the rickety folding card tables brought out of storage. You only stop being a "kid" when someone at the main table dies. (Since I am now the fricken patriarch of the family, I push two or three library tables together in the great room that EVERYBODY can sit around. Finally. Now the kids WANT a separate table. Can't win.)

2) Mom demands to host, watches TV (her usual job) up until about 10 the night before, then realizes the house hasn't been cleaned in two years, the turkey is still frozen, and she doesn't know how to cook the stuff she bought. By 9 am, she's screaming at everyone, breaks down in tears, and we all load up in the cars to find a restaurant. (Mom is not allowed to host any more. The one thing the whole family agrees on. )

3) For a few years, I had a FB who spent xmas morning in my bed. We'd work ourselves into blissful exhaustion then shower and head off separately around noon, to face the families in a very mellow mood. This worked quite well. (Unfortunately, now the event is usually at my house.)

Christmas Eve we eat a low key dinner, go to church, and come home and watch a movie. Then we open Christmas presents on Christmas morning, and either stay at our house and host the cousins, or go to their house and open more presents and watch lots of football!

My brother and I spend the night at our parents. In the morning we open stockings. Each family member draws a name out of a hat and is responsible for that person's stocking. There is a budget of $100 for each stocking, most of which is spent on items that make fun of a particular part of that person's personality/interests.

Then we have breakfast (waffles, bacon cups with egg, coffee). After that we open our main presents and then lounge around relaxing for a couple hours. Essentially we stay in pajamas all day.

Then in the afternoon we drive over to our aunt and uncle's house and have take-out Chinese for dinner. Essentially everybody who was at the Christmas Eve dinner shows up for this as well.

Generally we kick off the festivities with the eternally late sibling and his significant other having an attitude if we don't wait for them to arrive before serving any food or beverages. Then we segue into the back handed compliments, followed by the passive-aggressive responses. Then a sullen teenager who has never learned any manners will open his gifts, express disappointment, and his hyper-sensitive mother will freak if anyone even looks at him. Off color jokes and remarks will be made regarding the prevalent topics in the news as the alcohol continues to flow.

Well thanks for all the replys they all sound good really like the ones on the beach and sorry to hear about your loss Lorac(special love and hugs to you).Well time for me to share;well first it starts out with who host which is done by picking whoever did'nt show up for Thanksgiving.The gathering usually starts about noon with everyone brings a dish around 2-3pm we start to eat(Mom is always late)after the food is eat all the adults gather for the traditional shot of taqiula and then open presents.About that time those that are still in the club break off in small groups to meet up for a club meeting(420,This is the part a beach to walk on would be great)and shortly after everyone will start there goodbys and thanks(love you,glad you like your gift)That's how our Christmas usually goes.In reasent years it's been ruff working part time not much money for presents but I try to get something for my Grandma b/c she does for me all the time.So once again thanks for your stories and for those on the beach rise a glass/take a deep breath of clean air for me.Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Be safe,happy,and free

BRIX saidMy grandparents were immigrants from Italy, and my family still follows the traditional Southern Italian custom of a big Christmas Eve dinner of seven fishes, except that's a lot of fish and usually we are one or two fishes shy of seven. There will be strong coffee and sweets we see just at this time of year that my mom has been preparing for weeks now, and then we'll all go to Midnight Mass and stay up way too late (mostly laughing and talking about the people we saw at church) while everyone sneakily adds presents to the stockings hanging on the mantle.

Wish I had a big family.

But I usually start the holidays off with a fresh sacrifice of a pure, young white rabbit to the Ancients gods of Real jock to keep me young. That's the start of a three day wild debauchery sex fest ending it all with live naked depiction of a manger scene.